Facebook exec blasts WhatsApp founder for being ‘low-class’

David Marcus wants to talk about class. Or, specifically, the lack thereof he sees in a wealthy man taking a principled stand against the conglomerate that so long buttered his bread.

The Facebook head of blockchain published a clearly frustrated screed today, blasting WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton’s decision to go on the record about his departure from Facebook, and his stated belief that in selling his messaging company to the Menlo Park behemoth he betrayed his users in the process.

“I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit,” Acton told Forbes. “I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”

Well, Marcus doesn’t care for that bit of soul searching at all. Not one bit.

In a fiery Facebook post Wednesday morning, the very much still-employed-by-Facebook executive blasted the Forbes interview and talked trash on Acton specifically.

“Lastly — call me old fashioned,” he wrote. “But I find attacking the people and company that made you a billionaire, and went to an unprecedented extent to shield and accommodate you for years, low-class. It’s actually a whole new standard of low-class.”

But Marcus — who insisted he “just had to” write this — wasn’t done. His rejoinder continued with a defense of Facebook surely meant to stirring.

“And Facebook is truly the only company that’s singularly about people. Not about selling devices,” he wrote — apparently forgetting about the Facebook Oculus entertainment device literally being pitched to press when he hit submit on his post. “Not about delivering goods with less friction, Not about entertaining you. Not about helping you find information. Just about people.”

And sure, Facebook is “about” people. Just as a leech is “about” the person it’s latched to, Facebook needs its users to survive. However, to confuse that with being “for” people is one hell of a mistake to make.

Perhaps one day, maybe after he too leaves Facebook behind, Marcus will come to the same conclusions as Acton. Or maybe not.

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